The Army has put an immediate freeze on civilian hiring and will begin terminating some temporary employees to reduce spending ahead of potential across-the-board budget cuts later this year. Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno and Army Secretary John McHugh also directed Army commanders and supervisors to reduce base-operations support spending.

Paul Mehney is with the Army's office of System of Systems Integration. In this week's edition of On DoD, he fills us in in what the Army's planning for the next NIE, and what it's learned from the unorthodox testing and acquisition process so far.

A military judge's ruling on Wednesday tightly limited an Army private's ability to argue he had good reasons for allegedly sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

The $16.8 million array includes nearly 15,500 sun-tracking solar panels spread across 42 acres. It will be capable of producing 10 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, enough to meet about 10 percent of the need of the missile range.

At the end of fiscal year 2012, the Army's vehicle fleet numbered around
70,800 vehicles, which is about 12,000 less than it had in 2009. As it
cuts back on the number of overall vehicles it has, the Army is also
assembling a greener, more environmentally friendly fleet.

Martin Libicki of Rand Corp talks about managing cyber attacks. Kevin Brancato of Bloomberg Government discusses the Canada's decision to pass on the F-35. John Templeton of BlackMoney.com talks about being an African American in IT. Belva Martin of GAO discusses the new network communications strategy.

Two Navy sailors have rejected administrative punishments for allegedly hiring prostitutes in Colombia last year in a scandal that engulfed members of the military and Secret Service, and both asked for trials by court-martial.

Uneasy allies, President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai demonstrated Friday they could agree on one big idea: After 11 years of war, the time is right for U.S. forces to let Afghans do their own fighting. U.S. and coalition forces will take a battlefield back seat by spring and, by implication, go home in larger numbers soon thereafter.

A new defense spending plan will keep the nation's only tank manufacturing plant operating through the next two years, ending months of worry about the future of the factory where about 800 workers refurbish the Abrams tanks.

First Lt. Aaron Dunn deployed to Afghanistan in early March 2012. His 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, was charged with engaging Taliban fighters in Kunar Province and mentoring Afghan government soldiers. Upon returning, here are some of his views.

A U.S. Army brigade will begin sending small teams into as many as 35 African nations early next year, part of an intensifying Pentagon effort to train countries to battle extremists and give the U.S. a ready and trained force to dispatch to Africa if crises requiring the U.S. military emerge.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is giving the Defense Department and the military services until Jan. 21 to review the backgrounds of all employees who have contact with children in department programs and to report back in writing.